Working in this industry is a dead-end the moment you start. I'm not talking about chef's that go to culinary school or serving at high-end restaurants that actually pay honestly, I'm talking about serving at Applebee's, Chili's, fast food, and so forth.
If you are like me and didn't go to college right out of high school, the restaurant business was what yielded the most without a degree in 2010. It was meant to be something temporary until you figured out what your purpose was and for many, they just got stuck there and to-date, know some still working this job, driving the same car, doing the same thing. I consider myself thankful to have started working this industry early on at age 16 so I could recognize how undeniably depressing, dreadful and thankless this work was. Not just what I did, but what I saw the other servers (who made more) go through just to make rent and survive. This was 13 years ago… imagine how it is today?
My parents' ultimatum to me was either A) Go to college, live at home and work at the restaurant or B) Don't go to college, work at the restaurant and move out. Absolutely zero support from them in helping me understand and find purpose in life let alone what is needed to help mold a successful future. I thankfully had enough forethought though to understand what my future would be like if I was to keep working at the restaurant–even if I moved up to a server–plus the risk I ran pulling out loans I knew I wouldn't be able to afford back with the earnings I would get working at a restaurant if things didn't work out at school. It would be a disaster either way so I figured it couldn't get much worse and instead, decided to enlist which came with my first real-world gut-wrenching pressure to get in-shape and ship-out ASAP. My parents refused to let me stay at home even with this choice leaving me with a year's worth of rent and time to ship. I had one year to lose 45 lbs otherwise, I'd have to take on more time at the restaurant just to make ends meet. I was so terrified of being stuck at that damn restaurant and living a shitty poor life that, between working out and work itself, I basically starved myself so I didn't have to re-new my lease and keep working at that restaurant. Had nothing to sleep on besides a sleeping bag I bought.
It was a lot of work the moment I left home and was on my own but in the seven years I served, I promoted, led people and served honorably. When I got out, I was in school the second week I came home and graduated in 2022. I put a TON of work into my military career and thankfully, it yielded a much larger return later on–something the restaurant industry won't do. It took INCREDIBLE amounts of change to make my time with the military happen and this is what the purpose of this message is. If you want better in life, you need to be able to make change, even if it means more pain and suffering in the short-term.
TLDR:
It's never too late to quit this industry and move on to something greater. It doesn't have to be college, it can be anything as long as it is a career you know that will pay the bills–especially today's bills and tomorrows. If you have the sacrifice the little you already have just to have it better later on, do it. You literally have nothing to lose, especially given how little you can make today working shit like this.